


Raps & Zel

by Tlatia_the_Radiant



Category: Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure (Cartoon), Tangled (2010)
Genre: Angst, Angst and Romance, Denial, Drama, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, I Will Go Down With This Ship, Inner Dialogue, Sacrifice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-10
Updated: 2020-12-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:21:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27995955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tlatia_the_Radiant/pseuds/Tlatia_the_Radiant
Summary: The night after Cassandra's takeover of Corona, Rapunzel faces the most difficult decisions she may ever have to make. All the harder when you have a couple thousand citizens watching your every move, waiting to see what you do. Raps could really use some privacy to think about this. Maybe what she needs to clear her head is a nice, quiet stroll through the woods? After dark? By herself? I'm certain nothing crazy or dangerous could possibly happen if she goes. Nothing at allllll.
Relationships: Cassandra/Rapunzel (Disney: Tangled)
Comments: 8
Kudos: 55





	Raps & Zel

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tovanori](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tovanori/gifts), [laikaspeaks](https://archiveofourown.org/users/laikaspeaks/gifts), [avaloon](https://archiveofourown.org/users/avaloon/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Tovanori's DarkRapsAU](https://archiveofourown.org/external_works/724221) by Tobb aka Tovanori. 



> Inspired by Tovanori's DarkRapsAU
> 
> For them and the whole Cassunzel community

The night air outside was damp and cool as Rapunzel made her way out of the Snuggly Duckling. Damper then she might’ve liked, but that didn’t slow her down. In fact, it was actually taking some effort to keep her pace steady and measured, instead of just breaking into a full run and go flying off into the woods.

It wouldn’t go over well for the people to see their princess start to panic.

* * *

‘Lousy no-good witch, that Cassandra. Should’ve known she would turn on us.’

‘Did you see her at the castle? With the glowing hair and the spikes? What a monster.’

‘I heard she’s connected to that old witch who took the princess. Gothel, was it? Guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.’

‘Can’t believe she was one of us. All these years. You know she almost became one of the guards?’

‘Don’t even want to think about it. Let’s just figure out how we’re gonna deal with her. The sooner she’s gone, the better.’

‘I’m thinking gone isn’t enough. Monster or witch or whatever she is, things like that need to go down. Preferably under the ground.’

‘Mmhmm.’

* * *

It had been the worst 3 hours of Rapunzel’s life. It really, really had. Hearing the people, Her people, talk about Cassandra, her best and closest friend in all the world, like she was a-a… no. She couldn’t take it. She had to block it out.

She’d tried, at first, to talk to them about it. To soothe the anger and bring out the good inside them like she always had before. But then the questions had come. Promises and vows had once been enough for her to give. After all, she was Rapunzel, and hadn’t Princess Rapunzel always come through for her people before? Hadn’t she solved every problem that had come her way, never spilling a drop of blood in the process?

But not this time. This time, she’d tried and failed. This time, as she watched Cassandra break out of that amber prison and scream that awful scream of hers, a scream of broken trust and burning pain and vengeance-vengeance- _Vengeance_ , she’d been able to do nothing at all. Nothing but watch as black spikes tore her people’s homes apart and sent them all fleeing into the woods, peasants, soldiers, and royalty alike.

Fleeing. Like she was doing now.

At the edge of her hearing there were concerned voices calling to her. She thought she heard her mother among them. But she didn’t stop. Far enough from the bar now to not be seen she started running, trusting her knowledge of the path to keep her safe as her feet carried her further and further away from the light.

‘What if I’m wrong?’ said a thought she refused to admit was her own.

‘What if I’m wrong and Cass really is a monster? Gone now, never to return? What if the only way to deal with her is-‘

‘You’re not.’ She thought back at herself furiously. ‘You’re not wrong! The Cass you know is alive and in there, somewhere. You’ve seen it, you felt it! You almost had her back there. Think, Rapunzel!’

She did think, blinking to keep the tears from welling up in her eyes as she remembered those last few moments she had with her best friend. When Cass was disguised as Faith, playing as Raps in the theatre, trying to tell her how she felt and how sorry she was.

‘Stupid, so stupid Raps!’ she yelled in her head. ‘She was right there telling you and you didn’t see it! Why couldn’t you see it?! If you’d just- ‘

PAIN! Suddenly, Rapunzel was falling, her foot screaming at her in sheer agony. Somewhere in the darkness she had collided with something hard, maybe a root, and the next thing she knew she was flat on the ground. A keening wail ripped its way out of her, so loud it could’ve been heard back at the Duckling.

For a few minutes she just lay there, clutching her foot and trying to deal with the burning sensation. A little into it, she ironically found that the physical pain was distracting her from the emotional pain she already had. Focusing on her foot helped to block out the voices.

‘Suppose it’s what you deserve,’ she thought bitterly, tears now rolling down her cheeks. ‘After everyone you’ve let down, what’s a few stubbed toes as punishment?’

A part of her knew that this train of thought probably wasn’t healthy, but right at that moment she didn’t care. Anything was better than the torture her heart was going through.

Couldn’t even her friends help her through this? Where were they? Curled up on the forest floor she tried to picture them, one by one. Varian? (Varian with his amber cannon, blasting Cassandra and setting this whole thing into motion) She shook her head. Lance? (Lance, screaming like a little girl as spikes shot up from the ground.) Her parents? (Father, having wanted posters to put up throughout the kingdom, offering a reward for Cass’ capture)

Eugene? (Eugene, telling her that Cass had been the one to leave her, that she had to think of herself now, put herself first…)

‘Let’s just think of how we’re gonna deal with her.’

‘Okay, that’s enough,’ she thought. The pain had stopped helping, if it had even really helped at all, and since she still didn’t have an answer Rapunzel forced herself to her feet and kept moving. The bruising slowed her down, but the effort it took to move became another way to distract herself from her thoughts, giving her another reason to press on.

Time passed. She couldn’t tell how far she’d gone, or how long she’d been out there now, but eventually the trees thinned, and Rapunzel found herself at the edge of a small clearing. The stars were shining just as brightly as ever, tiny and everlasting. She stepped out into the open sky and gazed up at them, praying for something. For anything.

Nothing answered, or at least nothing real. The voices were still there in the back of her head, but at that moment she realized she was tired of running. She’d tried talking, she’d tried listening, she’d tried fleeing, and she’d even tried pain. Nothing had worked, so Rapunzel fell to her knees and did the only thing left she could think of: she closed her eyes, looked inside herself, and tried to find an answer within her.

‘Did you see her at the castle?’

‘Yes. I did,’ she thought. ‘I’m so sorry.’

‘With the glowing spikes and the hair? What a monster.’

‘No, you’re wrong. She’s not a monster.’

‘You know she almost became one of the guards? Can’t believe she was one of us.’

‘No, she’s amazing. She is. You just have to see her.’ In the real world, all she could hear was the sound of her own breathing.

‘Don’t even want to think about it. Let’s just figure out how we’re gonna deal with her.’

‘No…’ Her hands were clenching into fists, twisting the grass underneath.

‘I heard she’s connected to that old witch.’

‘Lousy, no-good witch.’

‘Gothel…’

‘Noooo!’ Was she shaking? She couldn’t tell.

‘I’m thinking gone isn’t enough… things like that need to go down…’

**_NO._ **

Rapunzel’s eyes popped open, her body perfectly still. Something strange had happened just then; strange and…wrong? Something about that last ‘no’.

Anyone who knew Rapunzel could count the number of times she’d been truly, deeply angry on a single hand. It just wasn’t in her nature, who she was or wanted to be. She was Rapunzel. She brought people together and made peace with her enemies. She didn’t _hurt_ anyone, not if she could help it. Not ever. This time had felt worse. That ‘no’ had felt different than any other moment of anger she could remember. It had come from somewhere deep inside her, somewhere that felt raw and harsh and…

The voices were silent. Rapunzel jerked herself up so hard she almost pulled a muscle. But what did that matter when her mind was reeling? The doubts, the questions…they were gone! Was it the ‘no’?

She waited. Listened. For a minute she almost dared to believe that the voices were truly gone.

But then, slowly yet surely, she felt them again. They were fainter now, just on the edge of her mind, but she already knew that wouldn’t last. They would grow again if she did not find a way to deal with them once and for all. She also knew that of all the things she’d tried that night only one had actually worked so far.

“This feels like a bad idea,” she said to herself. She took a deep breath that turned into a resigned laugh. “But then again, what have all my other ideas gotten me?”

Still sitting alone in the dark and half-afraid of what she might find, Rapunzel slowly closed her eyes and focused on her breathing. If someone had asked her then, she wouldn’t be able to tell them where she’d heard about meditating. Was it her mother? A book she’d read? One of her tutors? She couldn’t recall, but right then it didn’t matter. All she had was some vague idea of how it worked, and that was going to have to do.

She thought of the Duckling. Of the people inside it. Of what they’d said. The voices started coming back, and Rapunzel felt her heartbeat start to rise. It wasn’t as bad as before, but she still didn’t know what to do when she went back. The feeling, the ‘no’, hadn’t exactly been the answer she was looking for.

But it _was_ an answer, and as the voices grew louder, she tried to open herself to the part that had given it. What feeling, what piece inside of her had said that? She breathed steadily, in and out, as she let the voices wash over her again. It hurt, but through the haze she thought she could sense something. An image, trying to form inside her mind.

She caught a glimpse of it.

**_NO._ **

What happened next Rapunzel would have trouble describing even to herself in days to come. Trying to write about it in her journal, she scribbled words like hallucination or vision, but none of those would just quite capture what she felt that night. That lack of a fitting word would bother her for quite some time, though she never told anyone about that night. It just… seemed important, somehow, to have the right word for what she went through that night.

As the ‘no’ ripped through her again her body trembled, and she felt her eyes open almost against her will. For a moment she found herself back in the clearing, her arms clutching each other as she tried to steady herself.

The image… it had been of Cassandra’s broken corpse. Her dead eyes had gazed lifelessly into Rapunzel’s own.

“No,” came a voice. It took a few seconds for Rapunzel to realize it hadn’t been her own.

There was something in the clearing with her. Her eyes had long since adjusted as well as they could to what little light there was, but even so she couldn’t make out what it was. There, sitting just a few yards away, was what looked like a pitch-black mound rising from the earth.

A black rock? Rapunzel tensed at the thought. But somehow, she knew it wasn’t. There was something less sharp, less menacing about it. As she stared, it even seemed to shift a little. Was it alive?

Common sense would’ve told her to run, but Rapunzel was long past considering good sense at that point. She was tired, so tired, and even more frightened of the voices in her head than any mysterious mound that would suddenly appear before her.

Pulling herself to her feet, Rapunzel stepped toward the pile of blackness. She could see that it was shorter than her then, and more rounded than a black rock. As she got closer, she stepped around it to see if there was anything behind it.

There was. Cassandra was laying back against the mound.

With a gasp Rapunzel jerked back at the sight of her friend’s blue hair. Her mind was racing all over again at the sight of her friend. What was she doing here? Rapunzel had just seen her in her head. Was this real, or was she still dreaming?

Cassandra didn’t react to her. In fact, she wasn’t moving at all. ‘Not the corpse again’, Rapunzel prayed, but the more she looked the more she saw little differences. This Cassandra’s eyes were closed, making her look more like she was asleep. And something was wrapped around her waist. Something lighter than the black and blue of her outfit.

Rapunzel forced herself to step closer, all the way around the mound. And what she found gave her biggest shock of all.

The mound was not a mound. It wasn’t any kind of rock or dirt at all. It was a person; a girl, just sitting there with long, long, jet-black hair that fell back across the ground around her. She was holding Cassandra, letting the blue-haired girl lay back against her, wrapping her arms around Cass’ waist as tight as a belt. Her face nestled against Cass’ neck, which she rubbed against as Rapunzel watched.

That face. It was Rapunzel’s face. The princess of Corona stared dumb-founded at what looked like her own reflection sitting there before her, holding her best friend so close and tight it seemed outright intimate.

Rapunzel wasn’t sure how long she stood there but eventually the other Rapunzel’s eyes moved up to meet hers. They were different from hers too, like the hair. Solid black orbs without sclera or iris, only glowing points of light for pupils that followed her own. They were so different, those eyes, and looking into them Rapunzel found herself wanting to turn away. They were so empty. So cold.

Emotions whirled inside her, telling her to run, to hide, to fight this thing before her. But they were all defeated by the same tired desperation that had made her approach in the first place. That, and something else.

As Rapunzel looked down at this other her, she felt something that almost surprised her. She felt curious. After everything she’d been through, she’d really started to wonder if she could ever feel that way again, feel anything like her old self again after all this was over. But here she was, looking at her reflection holding an enigma, and a part of her just wanted to know more.

Rapunzel lowered herself to the ground as gracefully as a lost, dazed, and emotionally wrecked princess could, and looked back into the eyes of the girl across from her.

“Who are you?” Rapunzel asked.

“Who do you think?” the girl replied. “Who do I look like?”

“You look like me. But that’s…”

“Impossible. How could I ever be you?”

Rapunzel blinked at that statement. “What do you mean?”

“I would never want to hurt someone I love. I would never want them gone. You and I are nothing alike.”

“What?” Rapunzel couldn’t tell what she was talking about until her reflection pulled Cassandra closer, and it all clicked.

“No. No, you’re wrong! I would never, how could you even think that?”

“No? So, you’re not here to figure out how to do just that?”

“No!”

“You’re going to run away then? Maybe join her?”

Rapunzel fell silent, caught off-guard again. Her dark twin continued in her absence.

“Or you’re not. You’re going to go back there and do something, because you have to do something. You’re the princess, after all. And you can’t think of what, so the only options left are the ones those ‘people’ are telling you. Cass must be stopped.”

Dark Rapunzel (Raps had to call her something, even if only in her head) scrunched herself deeper into Cassandra, hiding herself partly behind their best friend’s head. “I won’t let you.”

Rapunzel found herself shaking her head in denial. Tears started to well up in her eyes. “I won’t let it happen.”

“Won’t you?”

“No!”

“How?”

“How? I don’t- I was going to ask you that!” Rapunzel looked away, racking her brains for an answer. This wasn’t going the way she’d hoped for. She was the one who needed answers, damnit, not more questions!

“I gave you an answer. You’re the one who won’t accept it.”

“What?” Rapunzel was getting more confused by the second. Just who was this girl? What was she saying?

“Don’t you remember?” she asked. Rapunzel shook her head.

**_“NO.”_ **

It was Dark Rapunzel who said it, loud as thunder, but it was Rapunzel’s body that shook with rage when she did. It was so strong and sudden a wave that it nearly knocked her over. Instead, she found herself on all fours, bracing herself against the ground like there was an earthquake happening.

She could feel it deep in her bones now; a willingness to stand before her people and say that same word, with all the fire and steel of an army. To face them, to _fight_ them, to throw herself at them with fists and teeth if they would not back off. It was an anger she’d never felt before, and it drowned out the voices like a storm, like a flood. But it still felt uncomfortable to her. It was her, but it also wasn’t. Wasn’t it?

The shaking subsided after a while, leaving Rapunzel breathless and out of sorts. She looked back up at her dark twin and saw those points of light in her eyes boring down into her. Her eyes had that same anger in them, the anger of that word. Set next to Cassandra’s empty, dreaming expression, the contrast was unsettling.

It had only been one word, but there was an ocean of meaning behind it. “You want me to… stop them?”

“I want a lot of things.”

“But Cassandra’s…” Rapunzel couldn’t finish the sentence. She knew, they both knew what their best friend was doing.

“I want what I want,” Dark Rapunzel said.

It was such a stupid sounding answer, but some part of Rapunzel understood.

“Listen, Dark-me, I want her back too- “

“What? What did you call me?”

“Oh, um, sorry? D-do you have a name? Who are you?”

“Zel. Short for Rapun-zel.”

Rapunzel cocked an eyebrow in response but kept her thoughts to herself. “Uh, okay? Nice to meet you, Zel. I’m Rapunzel too.”

“Hmph. If you say so.”

“Excuse me? I’m sorry, what’s that supposed to mean?”

“You should be sorry. Since when does Rapunzel give up on anyone? Much less someone she loves?”

“I have not given up on anyone!” she shouted at her twin.

“No, I’m sure you’re just out here for the cool night air,” Zel countered with an unpleasant smile. “Don’t try to lie to me. You really can’t. Those voices you’re hearing aren’t getting louder because you like their tone.”

Rapunzel wanted to deny her again. She wanted to scream and throw dirt at this, this impostor’s face. She wanted to grab Cassandra’s hands and pull her away from this “Zel’s” embrace and into her own. Just grab her and take her away from here, away from everything…

“Please. Just tell me how I can save her. I don’t want to do it. I don’t want to fight her. I don’t.”

She wished she could’ve been strong in that moment. Like a queen should be. But instead, she lowered her head to the ground and curled herself up into a ball. She begged. “Please.”

“…I don’t know what’s going to save her,” came Zel’s voice. Rapunzel’s heart shriveled inside her chest. “But I don’t think you need to know that.”

Rapunzel’s head looked up. “What?”

Still sitting across from her, her dark twin let out a sad, bitter laugh and shook her head at Raps’ display. “You’re so hopeless, Blondie. So many answers right in front of you but you just can’t bring yourself to pick one.”

“Huh? What answers?” Rapunzel lifted herself up again to actually look around her, as if said answers would appear just like these two girls had.

The other Rapunzel stopped laughing but kept the smile on her face. “Alright. Since you’re so clearly lost without me, I’ll give you a hint. Despite how you may feel, deep down you already know what you’re going to do tomorrow, don’t you?”

At first Rapunzel thought her other half was speaking in riddles again. But then to her surprise, she realized that not only was Zel being serious, she was also kind of right. In spite of everything she’d gone through the past few days, Rapunzel did know what she was going to do tomorrow. Or at least what she wanted to do.

“I’m going to try to save Cassandra.”

“See? That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

It wasn’t, really. But she didn’t feel any better for it. “That can’t be all there is to it.”

“No? Why not? What’s in the way now?”

The simple questions were starting to get to her. If this girl was a part of Rapunzel, then she knew exactly what was wrong. “The voices,” she said. “The people! They all want me to-” she looked down at Cassandra’s sleeping face, so calm and peaceful, so unlike the real Cass.

“You’re gonna let them make the decision?”

The way Zel said it made that dark anger twinge inside her, and the answer came out before she could stop it. “No.”

“No?”

“No. They don’t get to make that decision. Cass is my best friend. No one gets to decide that. She’s…”

It was the answer Rapunzel wanted to give, and wanted to _mean_ , but her voice wavered as she said it. In her mind she cursed herself as feelings rose and fell inside her like waves. There was that frightening anger that somehow also felt relieving. But right behind it came guilt, shame, and other emotions. Affection, fear, and resentment for everyone and everything involved in this catastrophe warred inside her. As swiftly as she’d found some resolve, it slid away in that storm.

Zel watched her, calm and unmoving. “She’s important to us,” she said.

Rapunzel could only nod in return.

“So, do you have your answer now?”

“I… guess so?”

The look on Zel’s face told Rapunzel just how convincing she sounded. Yet, Rapunzel couldn’t think of what else to say. She had more of an answer now; that was something at least, right? Maybe she just needed time. Yeah. Maybe on the way back to the Snuggly Duckling she’d gather the strength to tell the others what she felt. She could practice on the way back and-

“Well then, sounds like you’re ready to go! Since this looks like goodbye, why don’t you say something to our sleeping beauty here? After all, you did come all this way for her, didn’t you?”

Even after all that Rapunzel had been through that night, Zel’s sudden change of tone sent goosebumps running down her skin. Zel lowered her gaze to the slumbering girl she held, and Rapunzel couldn’t stop herself from doing the same.

Just as Cassandra’s eyes opened and looked back.

_She was back in the town, listening to Cassandra scream as she tore her way out of the amber. She was on the stage, listening to Cass try to confess her feelings. In the cave, watching Cass’ face crumble as she looked into the mirror._

Rapunzel didn’t even realize she’d started backing away from the two. Crawling awkwardly on the ground, her eyes stayed locked on her former best friend as Cass lifted herself up off the ground and started moving toward her.

_Cass, fighting with her in Varian’s lab. Cass, smiling in the cave as they worked their way out together. Cass, taking the Moonstone in the Dark Kingdom. Cass, looking at her through the black rocks._

_Rapunzel, somehow feeling Cassandra through the black rocks. Sensing, touching her heart._

It was only hitting a tree on the edge of the clearing that stopped Raps’ retreat. Even then, those glowing blue eyes held her. ‘Why didn’t my eyes ever change with the Sundrop?’ came an absurd thought in her head as Cassandra kept moving closer, a blank expressionless look on her face. Without so much as a word she pulled a black sword free from her back, holding it loosely at her side.

“Cass,” Rapunzel choked out, and suddenly noticed how badly she was shaking, how loud her heart was beating.

It came out as barely a squeak, that name, but Cassandra stopped when she said it, some flicker of emotion crossing her face. She stayed there, not 3 steps away, staring down at Rapunzel and waiting. For something.

“So, we all know what happens if you manage to get through to her,” came the voice of Zel as she walked up behind Cassandra, her black curtain of hair trailing behind her. “You save the kingdom, save your family and friends, save your ‘fiancé’ (Zel actually made air quotes around that word) and go back to your perfect little life, happily ever after.” Stopping next to Cass, she leaned onto the girl’s shoulder and smiled at her blonder self.

“But that’s not what’s really bothering you,” Zel waved her hand to the side, and out of nothing, someone appeared. Rapunzel was shocked again as _Xavier_ of all people appeared standing just behind Zel. Her twin waved again, and more people took shape. There was Monty, and then Faith. Pete, Crowley, her dad, and more. Soon a small crowd of people Rapunzel knew and cared for stood in a semicircle around the three of them.

“What’s really bothering you, what’s keeping you up at night, is what will happen if you _FAIL_.”

Another wave of shadows rose in front of the crowd and took the shape of the Coronan Guard. As one they leveled their spears towards Cassandra while the people behind them raised weapons and fists in turn. Sensing the danger Cassandra whirled around, lifting her sword against them while Zel slid away from them all.

“No!” Whatever fears Rapunzel had vanished in an instant, blown aside by far, far greater ones. Suddenly she was on her feet, all but throwing herself between her closest friend and the mob. Turning to face Cass, Rapunzel threw her arms out in plea.

“Please, Cass, don’t hurt them! Whatever’s wrong, whatever I’ve done, please, let me fix it! Please!”

Cassandra glanced at Rapunzel, emotion finally showing on her face (anger, but she would take what she could get.) Rapunzel tried to control her emotions, to look strong or sure or something, but her face wouldn’t obey her. Her eyes were watering, and she was barely holding back a sob.

Then she heard the guards take a step, and without hesitating she whirled around to face them too, throwing her arms out now to shield the woman behind her.

“NO!” she shouted again, even more frantic.

“You can’t have it both ways, Rapunzel,” Zel called out from the side. “If you can’t get through to her, you’ll have to choose.”

Rapunzel shook her head in denial, refusing to move.

“Who’ll it be, Rapunzel?”

She looked through the faces in the crowd, searching for some sign of sympathy or mercy. But there was only resolve… and fear.

“One girl guilty of crimes against the kingdom, or a city full of mostly-innocent people?”

“Please,” she begged them. “You don’t have to do this! She’s not evil! No one has to Die!” Rapunzel looked over her shoulder, desperate to see something in Cass’ eyes to sway them.

There was still anger there, and fear. Mistrust and pain. But something else, too. Something she could only recognize after seeing her through those rocks, in that cave, and a dozen other tiny moments in their life. Something that only came with a life like they had shared, a bond like no one else could understand.

“This isn’t much of a decision, Blondie,” came Zel’s voice in her ear. She was suddenly right next to them, not quite whispering. “But you’re asking anyway. You are a princess _._ You have a duty. A kingdom. People who are counting on you. Really, there’s a million reasons why one of these is the obvious choice. And maybe only one why it’s not. _So, I’m asking.”_

Those bottomless black eyes gazed into Rapunzel’s, only now they didn’t seem cold or empty to her at all. Deep as the ocean, they seemed filled with something impossibly meaningful. Something that would drown her if she let it. Something that would fill her and answer all her questions.

But she never got to ask. Or hear what Zel would’ve asked her. Seeing her distracted, the guards took their chance to lunge forward, spears aiming for Cassandra’s heart. Cass’ sword raised up high in answer.

Time was up.

* * *

…Darkness...

Darkness everywhere.

....................

There was... some faint echo of pain coming from her back. Was she stabbed? Hurt?

………………

A noise. There. Why couldn’t she open her eyes?

_“Well. I suppose that is an option for you. Bit of an odd choice, really, but hey! It’s your life. I’m just a part of it.”_

Zel?

_“I wonder how much of this you’ll remember. If we’ll see each other again. I think we will. This isn’t the end just yet. Although it might be soon, if you keep trying to have it both ways like that. Hahahahaha.”_

What was so funny? Ah, there. Footsteps? Zel, wait, don’t go! I still have so many questions.

 _“Do say hi to her for me, will you? Preferably with a kiss, if you can manage it. I swear, you’re so hopeless sometimes.”_

No Zel, wait………….

* * *

Rapunzel eyes opened to a sky of purple, tinged with orange on one side. The only sounds to be heard were the wind blowing through the trees and a single bird piercing the skies with its’ song. She blinked, then blinked again as the wind blew her hair over her face and into her eyes.

It took a few seconds to remember how her body worked. Slowly, to help with the pain she still felt in her back, she lifted herself upright, finding herself in the middle of the clearing.

‘How did I…?’ she thought. Then she winced, feeling the muscles in her back knotted up. She must’ve gotten it sleeping on the ground.

‘So, it wasn’t a stab wound-’, and then she froze. Just like that, suddenly everything came rushing back to her. Zel, Cassandra, the ring of guards, all of it.

“Cass? Zel?” There was no one else in the field now. No sign at all of anything that she’d seen last night. But of course, there wasn’t. What else could all of it have been but some crazed dream?

But then, why didn’t she remember falling asleep last night?

Dream or not, it’d felt as real as anything she’d been through, and she’d lived through a lot. Without hesitating, she placed her hands over her heart and started committing the details to memory. If nothing else, it would make for one hell of a page in her diary.

Yet deep down she knew it was so much more than that. Right there, in the quiet of the morning, something inside her felt settled, stronger, more certain. One of her deepest questions had at last been answered, and though there was still so much else to be decided on, that gave her something to hold onto.

“Heh. Hold on to,” she said to no one. Closing her eyes once more, she wrapped her arms around herself and thought of one moment above all.

_The last thing she remembered: throwing those same arms around Cassandra. Holding her close as the spears closed in. Shutting everything else out. A thought she couldn’t put into words then but did so now._

_“If this is the last thing I get to choose, let it be this. Let me be with her.”_

**Author's Note:**

> Oh what to say? My first fanfic in a while. Better keep it simple.
> 
> Credits! First and most importantly, I'd like to thank the Cassunzel Committee Discord server, for hooking me up with such a friendly and supportive community of fellow shippers. I would never have done this if I didn't think you all would appreciate it, just as I appreciate all the life you give to this fandom.
> 
> Second, and just as essential, I'd like to thank the amazing artist Tovanori, who originally created the idea of Zel for his own DarkRapsAU, which inspired my own version that you see here. They're doing some pretty darn good work, and I can only hope they continue to do it for a very long time. If you want to see for yourself, you can find them here:https://twitter.com/tovanori
> 
> Lastly, I want to send out special thanks to some specific members of the Committee for helping me revise this piece! Bestworstcase, Laika, Avaloon, Dana, you all gave me a boost in your own ways. Just know that I'm raising a glass for you as I write this.
> 
> Alright, I think that's it. This was meant to be a one-shot, but I might be inspired to continue it if the right idea strikes me. We'll see what the future holds for Raps, Zel, & Cassandra. In the meantime, there's other ideas to write. Till next time. Stay gold.


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